Your marketing plan is how you put your marketing strategy into practice. It's worth highlighting the main points of your strategy in the plan.

If you understand the market well, you can probably break it down into different segments - groups of similar customers. For example, you can break the business market down into businesses of the same size and in the same sector. For more information, see our guide on how to segment your customers.

For each segment, you need to look at what customers want, what you can offer and what the competition is like. You want to identify segments where you have a competitive advantage. At the same time, you should assess whether you can expect high enough sales to make the segment worthwhile.

Often, the most promising segments are those where you have existing customers. If you are targeting new customers, you need to be sure that you will be able to reach them.

Once you have decided what your target market is, you also need to decide how you will position yourself in it. For example, you might offer a high quality product at a premium price or a flexible local service. Some businesses try to build a strong brand and image to help them stand out. Whatever your strategy, you want to differentiate yourself from the competition.